The author, Louis Sachar

When I finished reading There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom, I checked out the author's biography. Sachar is quoted, "I never write down to kids, and I never try to guess what they think will be funny. I write what I think is funny. I give them something to reach for, something to think about." Cool, eh? Also, "educated as a lawyer, Louis Sachar has chosen to devote most of his time to writing for children. He and his wife, a former school counselor who is now a teacher, live with their young duaghter in San Francisco, California." Now I see how he was about to pull-off Carla's character so well!

One cool thing I found out on this website (www.LouisSachar.com) was that he wrote There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom while he was living in my hometown, Austin, Texas! I knew that a long time ago but must have completely forgotten...

Here's a biography on him that I found on his website (www.LouisSachar.com):

I was born in East Meadow, New York on March 20, 1954 and lived there until third grade. My dad worked on the 78th floor of the Empire State Building, and maybe that somehow inspired Wayside School, who knows? When I was nine years old, we moved to Tustin California. At that time, there were orange groves all around, and the local kids would often divide up into teams and have orange fights. The "ammo" hung from the trees, although the best ones were the gushy, rotten ones on the ground. Now most of the orange trees are gone, replaced with fast food restaurants, and big box stores.

I enjoyed school and was a good student, but it wasn't until high school that I really became an avid reader. J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut were the authors who first inspired me. Some of my other favorite authors include E.L. Doctorow, Margaret Atwood, E.B White, Richard Price and Kazuo Ishiguro.

After high school, I attended Antioch College in Ohio. My father died during my first semester, and I returned to California to be near my mother. During that time, I had a short but surprisingly successful career as a Fuller Brush man. For those of you too young to know what that is, I went door-to-door selling cleaning products.

I returned to college, this time to the University of California at Berkeley where I majored in Economics. On campus one day, I saw the unlikely sight of an elementary school girl handing out flyers. I took one from her. It said: "Help. We need teachers aides at our school. Earn three units of credit." I thought it over and decided it was a pretty good deal. College credits, no homework, no term papers, no tests, all I had to do was help out in a second/third grade class at Hillside Elementary School.

Besides helping out in a classroom, I also became the Noontime Supervisor, or "Louis the Yard Teacher" as I was known to the kids. It became my favorite college class, and a life changing experience.

When I graduated 1n 1976 I decided to try to write a children's book, which eventually became Sideways Stories From Wayside School. All the kids at Wayside School were based on the kids I knew at Hillside.

It took me about nine months to write the book. I wrote in the evenings. In the daytime I had a job at a sweater warehouse in Connecticut. After about a year, I was fired (my enthusiasm for sweaters was insufficient), and I decided to go to law school. Sideways Stories from Wayside School was accepted by a publisher during my first week at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

I finished law school, graduating in 1980, passed the bar exam (which was required to practice law) and then did part-time legal work as I continued to write children's books. It wasn't until 1989 that my books began selling well enough that I was finally able to stop practicing law and devote myself fully to writing.

My wife Carla was a counselor at an elementary school when I first met her. She was the inspiration for the counselor in There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. We were married in 1985. Our daughter, Sherre, was born in 1987. We live in Austin, Texas along with our dog, Watson.

I write every morning, usually for no more than two hours a day. I never talk about a book until it is finished. I spent two years on my latest novel, and nobody, not even Carla or Sherre knew anything about it until it was finished. Then they were the first to read it.

That book is called Small Steps, and will be published in January 2006.

In my spare time, I like to play bridge. You can often find me at the bridge club in Austin, or at a bridge tournament somewhere around the country.

Well, I'm done reading it now.

It's been fun. I find myself constantly thinking about the book throughout the day. I wish it was longer!

This is my first chapter book from my childhood to re-read as an adult. At first, I didn't think I could really care for it anymore. After the first few chapters, I realized why I loved it when I was younger. Bradley is such an interesting character, yet in some way very familiar. He resembles the class clown that everybody had in at least one of their classes growing up.

Carla's impact on Bradley is quite inspirational. I'm glad I was able to re-visit this book during my college career because it offered such a wonderful example of a great teacher that did something thought to be impossible. Looking back at the beginning of the book, it seems like Bradley was a different person back then. Carla also kinda reminded me of my Mother, a psychiatric nurse. I've always admired the work she does, making Carla seem very familiar as well.

I've already devoted a few posts to expressing my enthusiasm for Bradley's little toy animal collection. I love how the book keeps returning to those interactions between them and Bradley. It's like a projection of what is going on inside of Bradley's mind. Sounds a little creepy, but it sure is cute.

I highly recommend reading this book. It doesn't matter if you've already read it; re-read it or share it with someone else. I want to read it to every class that I teach during the beginning of the school year. It's truly a great story.

Chapters 40-47 (pages 163-195)

I didn't expect Carla to have taped back together Bradley's book report, turn it in to Mrs. Ebbel and take responsibility for it being "accidentally" ripped-up. I loved that part, especially since it reminded Bradley that she had told him that she doesn't believe in accidents. She helped him get an "Excellent" on it and received his first gold star on the chart that he had been staring at all year. Anyways, I had a feeling Bradley would eventually stop telling himself that he "hated" Carla. His coping skills are improving. Carla's really helped him learn to believe in himself.

I was a little surprised when Bradley went to help Carla move out of her office and it was already empty by the time he got there. The package left behind for him was awesome. I especially like how she imitated Bradley's homework heading style on the front of it. That was genius.

I also enjoyed Colleen's birthday party. It was ADORABLE! Bradley kinda reminded me of how I act and think when I'm traveling in a foreign country, except I never have a "Jeff" there to help me out. This part reminded me so much of my own childhood, especially the whole freaking out over boys thing.

The book ended with a letter that Bradley wrote for Carla. I love how Ronnie, his little toy rabbit, seems to represent him. It's so cool how Bradley sent Ronnie to Carla. How perfect is that. I'm not sure though if Bartholomew, his little toy bear, is supposed to be Carla. Maybe I should read the book again...

Chapters 31-39 (pages 123-162)

This book is really turning around! It's really nice to see so many good things happen to Bradley. He seems so happy to finally see what life is like when you're not a "monster." It reminds me of how I felt when I was younger. I was very quiet as a kid but at one point during my teenage years I realized that speaking up and being outgoing wasn't as horrifying as I always assumed it to be. I used to think everyone would laugh at what I had to say, make fun of me or think I wasn't worth listening to if I actually did speak up infront of people that weren't my friends or family. I was incredibly excited when I finally decided that I was ready to not be so quiet; I realized that all the depressing and embarrassing things that I thought would happen actually never did. It was completely different than I expected. People were interested in what I had to say and not nearly as critical as I thought they would be. I suddenly seemed to easily make many more friends. It was an awesome, enlightening experience. I'm sure it's kinda similar to how Bradley feels about his recent experiences: making new friends, including Jeff (again), reading Carla's book and writing a (pretty funny) book report, doing his homework, getting along with his Dad and getting invited to Colleen's birthday party. Unfortunately, where I left off was the twist. Carla just told Bradley that she's being transferred to another school. He's pretty upset but I think I have a good idea of how this book is going to end. :)

Chapter 23-30 (pages 86-122)

Carla has really been helping Bradley out. It's really sweet. He's realizing that he's not actually a monster; it's just that others just perceive him as being one because he's pretty much convinced himself that he is one. I was very surprised when Bradley did his homework - and when he ripped it up right before turning it in! I remember finding that part of the book hilarious when I was younger. I'm glad to see him so optimistic about doing his homework (he borrowed a book from Carla to do a book report on, which was surprising) and improving his reputation. It doesn't even seem like Carla has been doing very much for him, besides just actually listening to what he has to say and respecting it. She's awesome.

Chapters 15-23 (pages 58-85)

Whoa! Jeff just turned on Bradley! What a jerk! That makes me upset. Jeff seemed like the nicest kid ever, and now calls Bradley by his last name, as if they were never even friends to begin with. And, to make it worse for poor Bradley, he's acting as if it was him who gave Bradley the black eye, not Melinda. What a punk. Well, anyways, wonder if Jeff is going to end up with Colleen as his girlfriend.

GIRLS in the BOYS bathroom!?!?

I recently checked out my classmate, Katy's, blog that she's doing for
There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom, too. She had a sweet video of real, live boys going into a girl's bathroom. Here's her blog: http://katykakes.blogspot.com/ (hope you don't mind, Katy! I'm getting you publicity!)
I thought that was a pretty sweet idea, so I looked up GIRLS in the BOYS bathroom. The video I found was cute - they seem so shocked that boys have mirrors and actually urinate in the bathroom, too. Plus, they realized the most important thing about the boy's bathroom - it SMELLS! Ch-ch-check it out!
One last thought:
Isn't it a shame that when we were kids, we didn't have YouTube and cameras/phones that can record video? I wonder what Bradley Chalkers would post on the internet if the story took place during 2007....

My own little group of friends!

I searched through my room and found my own little gang of buddies! Well, actually, two gangs of them. I've been collecting these dudes for years. Some of them are even from different countries. They all have a different story behind them, and they are all awesome.

These guys are my (mainly) animal buddies.

These are my Homies, Mijos, and Clowns. A few years ago (during high school and my first year of college) I started collecting them from vending machines near the doors at H.E.B. (they cost about 75 cents.)

They are all different (except the twins), so I made a little video for you guys so you can get a better look at them.



The funny thing about these guys (the Homies, Mijos, and Clowns) is that I used to line them up and display them in my old apartment. They usually stood in a nice, neat row next to the stereo. Reminds me of Bradley.

Ch-ch-check it out!

There's some kid out there in internet land that also likes to play with and arrange his little toy animals, much like Mr. Bradley Chalkers. I need to start my own collection of "friends"...

Here's his picture I found on Google. Beautiful.

Chapter 7-14 (pages 27-57)

Now I'm really starting to remember why I liked this book so much! The characters are all so different; Bradley's rude and disgusting, Jeff is noble and kind, Carla is so incredibly nice it's almost scary, and so on. The three girls (Colleen, Lori and Melinda) totally remind me of when I was in fifth grade. It's that strange, awkward time in a kid's life when puberty is just about to start and you don't really understand the way you feel, so you insult and harass the person you have a crush on.
I am more and more liking Carla Davis' personality, though. When I read this book as a kid, I don't think I payed much attention to her role in the story. Now that I'm a teacher, though, I can't help but think that I would like to end up like her; she seems to be able to make even the nastiest, rudest, filthiest, and most disrespectful kid in school like her.

Chapter 4-6 (pages 18-26)

Growing up, I always wondered what it was like when teachers and parents met without the student present. I remember thinking that the teacher would probably tell the parent all the horrible things about their kid, and I probably thought that due to this book.

I also remember thinking that the new counselor, Ms. Davis, seemed pretty cool. I really liked her calm, warming personality and actually hope I end up as one of those kind of teachers!

All of these memories are being brought back to me as I re-read this book. I don't really remember what happens in the story, so the inclusion of this new kid (Jeff) is quite a mystery to me right now.

Chapter 1-3 (pages 3-18)

I read this book when I was a kid and absolutely loved it. I went on to reading many other books by Louis Sachar, but barely remember them. It's cool that I get this chance in college to revisit the book; it's just as cute as I remember.

I really like Bradley's personality, especially his collection of little toy animals. His family is hilarious. I think one thing I really liked about the book when I read it as a kid was the way his teacher , Mrs. Ebbel, treats him. I remember having a few teachers that acted much like her towards the "class clowns." I wasn't one of them, of course...

There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom

There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom

by Louis Sachar

Hey guys, my name is Arielle and this is my blog for RDG 3320, Mrs. Solomon's class. I just wanted to say hello to everybody from that class that looks at my blog! Isn't Mrs. Solomon fun?! And, if you were wondering, YES, that is the best dog in the entire world. I love you, Bob!

There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom was a book I read as a kiddo and absolutely loved. I wanted to re-read it for this class because I remember loving it, but can't remember what happened.

Anyways, have a great day and thanks for checking out my blog!